Bronx, N.Y. – The Fordham volleyball team suffered its fourth straight defeat on Sunday afternoon, falling in straight sets to defending Atlantic 10 champions VCU. With the loss, Fordham falls to 9-13 overall on the year and 2-7 in league play, while VCU improves to 14-7 and 9-0, respectively.
"Despite VCU being a solid defensive team, we were able to find a way to be offensively efficient, which is a good sign for us." Head coach
Ian Choi said, "We're looking to continue being more productive offensively against La Salle and Duquesne."
The Bronx Rams played the defending champs tough in the match, enjoying the third-highest hit percentage by a conference opponent against them, finishing at .140 as a group. Meanwhile, the visiting Rams conjured just their sixth-highest hit percentage on offense, at .217, in league play. Fordham's eight team blocks are also tied for second-highest among VCU's league opponents thus far and fourth through the entire campaign. Conversely, VCU's 10 team blocks are seventh-lowest on their season.
The two sides traded points up until the midway point of the opening set before a 5-1 visitor run starting at 15-13 propelled VCU to an eventual 25-18 win. Fordham's front line came alive in the second set, sparked by
Elise Benjamin's four blocks. Down two, 12-10, the junior teamed up with
Kaitlin Morley for a stuff and then tied the set up with a big solo swat. Benjamin added two more blocks over the next five points coupled with kills from
McKenna Lahr and
Natalie Martinez to take a 17-14 lead and prompting a VCU timeout. The defending champs fought back out of the break to retake the lead shortly thereafter and withstood a late Fordham surge to take a tight frame, 25-23.
The hosts again kept up with their rivals in set three, tying the set up, 14-14, through a block and kill by Benjamin but VCU again kept its foot on the gas and held Fordham off enough for a 25-22 win.
Morley finished with a match-high 12 kills and a .242 hit percentage, adding seven digs and a pair of blocks. Four other Rams had between five and six kills and seven different players tallied between four and eight digs. Benjamin made it seven matches in 16 tries with seven or more blocks, while
Makaela Tanaka and
Sophia Plett combined for 31 assists sharing setting duties.
Fordham heads back out on the road for its final three conference contests of the regular season away from home. The Rams play at La Salle on Friday night at 7 p.m. and at Duquesne next Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. Both matches can be seen live on ESPN+.
